New Hampshire Technology Readiness DataThe NH Department of Education, Office of Educational Technology, and the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium want to thank all those schools, districts, and SAUs who were successful in uploading school specific device and school survey information. Although there was significant participation across all states, NH has a 49% participation rate. The majority of schools have yet to participate. A Summary Report from the July 15th data snapshot was developed. August 27th is this report’s anticipated release date.
As a reminder for those who have not entered data, the Technology Readiness Tool remains open, and we encourage you to continue to add and/or update your information. These details will help the consortium to finalize minimum requirements for technology infrastructures and form the baseline for subsequent gap analyses for determination of readiness for the Smarter Balanced online assessments. Your own data will also personally help your schools and districts as it will provide useful and necessary information about your school’s readiness for online testing, data which should inform your technology committee, administration, and school board as you develop, budget, and implement your technology plans over the next few years.

Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium New Hampshire is a governing member of the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium. The SBAC is guided by the belief that a high-quality assessment system can provide information and tools for teachers and schools to improve instruction that is aligned with the Common Core State Standards in ELA/literacy and mathematics.

Thank you to those who contributed information to the Smarter Balanced Technology Readiness Tool (TRT). The information that you submitted has provided state and Consortium leadership with valuable information that helped to make the Field Test a success.
As you may be aware, the Consortium Governing States have determined that the Consortium will not continue to support the TRT after the scheduled end of the current hosting contract on July 31, 2014. TRT users will have access to a “Report View”–only mode until the July 31st close of the TRT. In this mode, users will no longer be able to edit data in the system, but will be able to view and download data from the Reports tab.

IMPORTANT: If you want to save a copy of your district’s data, you must download it by July 31. Please download your data before the July 31 closeout.

RECOMMENDATION: Please continue to update your files as changes are made to your devices and infrastructure. In the future, you may need to access and submit or upload this data into another system
As NH revises our State Educational Technology Plan and District Technology Planning format and review process, district tech surveys/device and infrastruture data may once again be needed. These current files represent your current conditions and will serve you well when new data are required once again.

The SMARTER Balanced Assessment Consortium, in collaboration with the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) consortium, developed a Technology Readiness Tool to support districts with planning for technology as they transition to next-generation assessments to be launched beginning in 2015. The open source tool, which was in operation from February 2012 through July 2014, assessed current capacity and compared that to the technology that will be needed to administer the new online assessments in four areas-devices, device to tester ratio, network infrastructure, and staff and personnel. There were a series of six data collection windows in which the tool will be open for updating of information. The goal of the first data collection window is to collect easily-accessible baseline data. Data collection occured once each spring and fall through 2014. All districts in New Hampshire were requested to use the tool to assess technology readiness during each window. The data collected and reports provided by this tool continue to be valuable in developing district technology plans in future planning cycles.

In support of this effort, the role of State Readiness Coordinator (SRC) will be assumed by the Office of Educational Technology. The Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium (SBAC), along with the State Educational Technology Directors Association (SETDA), communicated with and provided training and support to the state liaison as well as districts and interested stakeholders through a SETDA online portal.

Get Ready New Hampshire!Tech Readiness Calculator!

A Technology Readiness Calculator is available to help schools estimate the number of days and associated network bandwidth required to complete Smarter Balanced assessments. This tool allows districts and schools to enter the number of students, number of computers, and number of hours per day that computers are available for testing. The calculator link can be found on the Technology page of the SBAC website.

In order to make effective decisions in upgrading every school to a high-speed Internet connection, administrators and policy makers need information about the state of Internet infrastructure in schools today. A SchoolSpeedTest is offered to K-12 schools around the country to create a database of the available bandwidth in America's classrooms. The online application measures the bandwidth actually experienced in the classroom by teachers and students. An easy, web-based, one-minute test. Any student, teacher, or other person on a school network can test a school's internet. The test takes about one minute and will collect upload speed, download speed, and the browser/operating system type of the device being used to take the test.

Training Tutorial on Updating Your Data in the Tech Readiness ToolThis tutorial was produced by Missouri and shared with other states. It uses a real district and demonstrates how to use the tool to update your information. Note: The contact information in the video is for Missouri, not for New Hampshire.
View the Tech Readiness Tool Training Video (20 minutes). The video is also posted on the Assess4Ed.net site, in our NH group.

Implementing Online Assessments This new website chronicles states’ experiences with implementing their online assessments. Delaware, Idaho, North Carolina and Virginia case studies tell the state’s history with online assessments, the evolution of their infrastructure, their approach to training and communication with districts, and an in-depth look at what it took for a district to implement online assessments. States have also shared the tools and materials - such as training agendas, technology checklists, and sample letters - that led to their success. The site is hosted by the State Educational Technology Director's Association (SETDA). Visit the website, use the materials, and participate in discussions about your experience with the transition.

Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium Smarter Balanced is a state-led consortium with a transparent, consensus-based governance structure. Members include both Governing States and Advisory States. Washington is the Lead Procurement State and oversees all financial procurement on behalf of the Consortium. New Hampshire is a governing state.

State Educational Technology Directors AssociationFounded in the fall of 2001, the State Educational Technology Directors Association (SETDA) is the principal association serving, supporting and representing U.S. state and territorial educational technology leadership. SETDA is working in partnership with both assessment Consortia (the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium and the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Career) to help states get ready for the online assessments.

SETDA Guide to Technology Requirements
This online, one-stop resource to help school districts identify technology requirements for online assessments as well as considerations for student learning, professional learning and school operations.

The Smarter Balanced Practice and Pilot TestThe Smarter Balanced Practice Tests provide an early look at sets of assessment questions aligned to the Common Core for grades 3–8 and 11 in both English language arts/literacy and mathematics. The release of the Practice Tests follows the Smarter Balanced Pilot Test, the first large-scale tryout of items and performance tasks, conducted February – May 2013.

Schools should plan for approximately three hours of testing, per grade per content area. Scientifically selected schools will be requested to administer the Pilot Test in no more than two grades. Released test items will be available for the other grades and content areas.

Technical Requirements for Participation – Online test delivery system will work on a variety of hardware/operating system configurations.
Accommodations and Testing Features – Some of the most common online accommodations and testing features will be available for the Pilot. The accommodations on the Pilot assessment will not be representative of the full array of accommodations and testing features that will ultimately be available.

Online training test available: Mid-January 2013

SBAC Pilot Test window: February 20 – May 10,2013

Pilot Testing information packets were sent to the Scientifically Selected Schools in January

Technology Requirements for Online TestingThe Smarter Balanced Technology Strategy Framework and System Requirements Specifications provide minimum hardware specifications and basic bandwidth calculations that will allow schools and districts to evaluate which of their existing computers will support the administration of the assessment system in the 2014-15 school year.

The minimum requirements apply only to the Smarter Balanced assessments and should not be considered minimum specifications to support instruction, which may require additional technology. In addition, all hardware choices should consider the individual needs of students. Some students may need hardware that exceeds these minimum guidelines, and some students may require qualitatively different hardware. These requirements are incorporated into the Tech Readiness Tool and your schools can use the tool to determine how ready they are.

Pilot Test Accessibility and Accommodations GuidelinesThe Smarter Balanced Pilot Test will offer a menu of accessibility and accommodation (A&A) options for students with special needs. The development of a full array of A&A features for the Smarter Balanced assessments is an ongoing project, and the options available for the Pilot Test represent a subset of those that will be available for the Field Test and Operational assessments.

Technology and Smarter Balanced AssessmentsAdvances in technology can improve the quality, accessibility, cost-effectiveness, and efficiency of assessments. The framework was developed with input and feedback from Smarter Balanced member states, work groups, and data from the Technology Readiness Tool, an online inventory of technology resources launched in 2012. Based on the research and data analysis, Smarter Balanced estimates that the majority of schools and districts in member states will be able to successfully administer the assessments with their existing infrastructure.

Data Extraction DatesSix extraction dates are planned to take data from the tool are form report.

Sunday, July 15, 2012

Additional Anticipated Extraction: Sunday, September 30, 2012

Friday, December 14, 2012

Friday, June 14, 2013

Friday, December 13, 2013

Friday, June 13, 2014

Monday, August 18, 2014

If your school has not been participating, please make plans to do so. Make participation in the technology readiness effort a vital part of your action plans for school and technology improvements.

Technology Readiness ToolThe tool will remain open for updating and use with data snapshots and reports being developed in summer and fall of each year. Data extraction dates are given above. These dates represent the times when a snapshot will be created. Please create a schedule of updating and adding to the tool that would allow you to complete your data inputs before the scheduled snapshot is taken. The information from those snapshots will give us all valuable information about the readiness of our state.

All schools should prepare and upload both the Device File and the School Survey File.